You may not realize it, but your shipping strategy is one of the most crucial elements defining the success of your business. In today’s world, consumers expect nothing less than a stellar customer experience from purchase through to delivery. Even if you have the best product in the world, it doesn't matter if your shipping operations miss the mark.

As Amazon paves the way in the e-commerce industry with their unbelievable offers and streamlined delivery service, businesses must raise their game if they want to stay competitive. Here are five practices you can put in place to make sure you deliver an exceptional customer experience every time a package leaves your warehouse.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks as industry giants Amazon and UPS both introduced new return shipping tools and policies that will have a big impact on merchants. Every type of shipper will want to watch these moves closely, especially consumer products and ecommerce businesses.

On the Amazon front, a new policy takes effect October 2nd which "automatically authorizes" returns for customers receiving orders through the fulfilled by seller shipping program. Almost as if on cue, UPS also announced a streamlined return shipping process this week to help customers easily print prepaid return labels.

It's well-established that customer demand is at the heart of these changes, shoppers buy more products when they have confidence in a free and simple return process. But how can vendors, worried about a loss of control, get in position to at least manage the impact of these policy changes, or better yet, find the upside?

Your packaging strategy has a direct impact on your bottom line. If you use too much packaging, you incur unnecessary costs in materials and carrier charges. Use too little, and you fail to protect your products, leaving you with significantly higher costs to replace the original items and send them to the customer a second time.

What may seem like only a couple of dollars wasted at a time, when you have thousands of boxes shipped every month, can quickly turn into thousands or millions of dollars lost every year.

Let’s explore a few of the main reasons why packaging optimization should be a priority.

Pacejet loves to uncover shipping trends and truths that help us improve customer operations, save money, and move businesses forward. That's why we believe in the science of shipping—because companies are ever-evolving and data, analytics, and flashes of brilliance can help you get where you want to go.